New research from Mintel reveals that Black women are most likely to wear their hair natural (no chemicals) with no-heat styling (40%) and natural with heat styling (33%). For a boost in confidence, 51% of women say their current hairstyle makes them feel beautiful.

With the majority (87%) of Black women agreeing that health is the ultimate beauty accessory, more and more consumers today are just as concerned with what’s not in their beauty and personal care products as what is included. In fact, 70% of Black women say they prefer to read ingredient labels in haircare products so they can avoid certain chemicals. Happy with the haircare choices they’ve made, all in all, three in 10 (30%) say their hair makes them feel healthy.

Consumer interest in avoiding damage to their hair has resulted in damaging effects to the category. In fact, total haircare expenditure among Black consumers overall is estimated to reach $2.51 billion in 2018, a -2.3% decrease since 2016, as a result of at-home relaxer sales declining 22.7% over the same period. However, shampoo and conditioner are soaking up sales as Black women learn how to better care for and style their natural hair on their own and turn to haircare maintenance systems rather than salon services. As such, spending on shampoo has grown 12.2% in the last two years, while conditioner has grown 7.3%.

Finally, it seems multicultural consumers view a trip to the salon as an opportunity to pamper themselves. Mintel research reveals that nearly half of Black (48%) and Hispanic (47%) consumers who receive salon services say they do so to treat themselves as compared to just 39% of consumers overall.